Kimchi - Korean Pickled Cabbage

I tried making my first kimchi last week. Feeling encouraged by the good result, I made another batch a few days ago - actually this time for my MIL because she LOVES kimchi. Now that I know how to make kimchi myself, I don't have to buy it anymore from the local Asian grocery store - all thanks to Maangchi! I think her site is always the first place I visit everytime I want to cook something Korean. It's extremely hard finding Korean food here, I know 2 Korean restaurants around and the foods there are very expensive (well, they've got no competition...!) and the quality is not always the best. So, her recipes and especially videos are very helpful.

Soak the cabbage pieces in water, drain and transfer them to a big bowl.

Sprinkle the cabbage with salt. Make sure all sides are salted.

Turn over the cabbage pieces every 30 minutes. This process takes 1.5 hours.

After 1.5 hours, rinse the cabbage in water - make sure you get rid of the salt covering the cabbage. Drain and set aside.

Kimchi paste: combine the glutinous rice flour and water together and mix it well. Cook this mixture under medium heat. You have to keep stirring (very important) until it gets thick and somehow sticky and translucent like glue.

The last thing to do is to add the cabbage pieces into the kimchi paste.

Mix, mix, mix...and your kimchi is ready! Keep it in an airtight container and save it in the fridge until you want to savour it another time...:)!

Video from Maangchi. Watch and you're one step nearer to making kimchi yourself at home...!

I think one thing that you have to take care of the most is to make sure that the flour+water mixture has a porridge consistency after you cook it, if not, the kimchi sauce is going to taste horrible. I saw several comments in Maangchi's website asking why their kimchi turned out too salty or too hot - I think this might be because they didn't rinse the salted cabbage before they dumped it into the kimchi paste. I think it's also important to check out the taste of the kimchi paste yourself and adjust it to your liking. If it's too salty, add a bit of water. If it's too hot, add a bit of sugar, etc. It's as simple as it is.

34 comments:

Your picture, especially the background, looks really pretty. Your kimchi looks good too. Personally, I don't really like kimchi (I only tried it once). Supposedly it has a lot of health benefits. If I ever feel like making kimchi, I will definitely use your recipe. :)

@ Esther - I like kimchi a lot. I don't normally eat it just like that, but I use it for fried rice, Korean pancakes or dumplings, taste great in these combinations. The background is actually my curtain...;)!

@ Esther - Yes, you certainly can and they are great! Check out some recipes from the site I mentioned above: Maangchi's site, or you can check my previous post "Kimchi pancake". I intend to make kimchi dumplings in the next few days I think.

Your Kimchi recipe deviates a little from mine, i.e. the one I so far used, but every family's recipe was different, I heard. If you like to see mine, I posted it here. It's in German, sorry, but I guess you'll understand. You encouraged me to prepare another batch soon, probably a hybrid between yours and mine.

I love kimchi. And the local Korean store I buy from changed their brand and it pretty much sucks! My mom makes the best ones but I haven't been able to make it. Yet. Once you love a specific kimchi flavor others just don't taste the same. Your looks good!